This report was developed as part of a series of three research publications on the research project led by UNU-IAS and IGES on monitoring and evaluation of education for sustainable development, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. This report specifically focuses on the development of an appropriate framework for structuring the approach on monitoring and evaluation of ESD in the region. This report draws findings from the studies published in the two previous reports on first the system leverage points in ESD implementation and second the characteristic of ESD learning performance.

The report is structured as follows:Section One focuses on the nature of ESD, the qualities of ESD that make it challenging from the standpoint of assessment, previous attempts to conduct M&E of ESD, and the main reasons for attempting to measure the progress that has been achieved during DESD.

Section Two begins by providing an overview of the general applications of assessment methods. A lengthy discussion then reviews modern trends in both educational practice and assessment with the purpose of identifying the benefits and limitations of the approaches especially as they could apply to ESD. In the final part of section two, the focus is specifically on investigating approaches for ESD assessment; this first addresses several of the main questions, criteria and targets that must be considered in identifying an appropriate M&E approach, and second it provides a discussion of several potential methods for conducting M&E of ESD.

Section Three starts with an explanation of the structure and methodology used during this project to conduct scoping research on ESD monitoring and evaluation in the region. The three main research approaches are introduced in turn with a clear explanation of the processes undertaken to conduct these approaches and an explanation of the findings and contributions made by approach. The final parts of this section turn towards synthesising and integrating the findings from this mixed-methods research in order to reach the original project aim of identifying a core set of important targets and leverage points for ESD. Proposals and recommendations are then presented for an ESD M&E framework. This is complemented by the presentation of several key outcomes from an expert consultation held at the end of research phase to further define the ESD M&E framework in a participatory manner, which is presented in an addendum to the main text.